Photo credit: Patrick McDermott

The day after Christmas, Nicklas Backstrom was skating in a KHL game for Dynamo Moscow. Midway through the second period of a 1-1 game, Nick took a pass in the far corner. He attempted to spin around and take the puck behind the net. Instead, Backstrom was slammed into the boards by Milan Kytnár; his face hitting the dashers. Backstrom got up, clearly shaken. He left the game after one more shift.

Given Backstrom missed 40 games last year after being concussed by Rene Bourque, this was a scary blow. Dynamo, however, insisted that his brain didn’t take the beating. It was, they said, a bruised neck. Backstrom’s agent reiterated that. But then Alex Ovechkin said something funny when asked about his teammate’s injury: “Sometimes it’s not hard hit, you just feel a little dizzy.” Dizziness, of course, does not usually go along with bruises.

Backstrom ended up seeing a neurologist, Jeffrey Kutcher, who cleared him to play. Despite the early injury fears, Backstrom had a nice season, putting up eight goals and 40 assists in 48 games. He made his teammates better too — Ovechkin only became a Hart Trophy finalist once he was reunited with Backstrom. He also did some Geico commercials. All in all, it was another solid season for Nicky.

Backstrom did, however, get off to a slow start. I asked him if his injury in Russia had anything to do with that. He seemed to be taken somewhat off guard by the question, but then insisted that it didn’t harm his play.

“Yeah, I had that injury but it didn’t affect me anything to be honest with you,” he told me.

“I felt like I was doing alright over here,” Backstrom added. “I have no excuses — I will never have them.”

Caps General Manager George McPhee was questioned Wednesday about who was playing through injuries this season. He declined to give details.

“You really admire these players because they play through some things — all the players around the league do — and they don’t need a medal to do it,” the GM said. “They play through it and they don’t need any recognition or anything. They just do it.”

The next day, word of Ovechkin’s broken foot was leaked. You know, the thing Ovi called just a bruise.

Hendy high-fives fans as he walks down the tunnel to the Capitals locker room. (Photo credit: Patrick McDermott)

Matt Hendricks is a beloved player in Washington, but by no means is he an essential one. The Caps know that, and he knows that. With his two-year, $1.65 million contract expiring on July 5, he may have played his last game as a Cap. Hendricks, though, hopes that’s not true.

“I hope I don’t get to that date in July,” he said Wednesday at Kettler Capitals Iceplex as the team cleared out their lockers. “I hope I’m back here in Washington.”

“We’ve been in the negotiating process over the course of the season,” Hendricks added. “It’s a business. It’s a big part of the business. You want to get what you feel you deserve and what you feel is right.”

Hendricks’s agent Michael Wulkan, for what it’s worth, didn’t reply to a request for comment.

The Capitals don’t have a ton of room to work with as things stand now this offseason. Washington has about $5.6 million in cap space, but they also have Mike Ribeiro, Karl Alzner, and Marcus Johansson to sign — things they’ll likely be more focused on. Grinders, too, can easily be replaced through the organization and if necessary the free agent market. And Hendricks isn’t an integral player on the ice, however fond fans and teammates are of him.

So Matt Hendricks is done in DC, right? Perhaps not. As a reporters asked one Capital after another about the 31-year-old forward, the players continued to give the same answer: it’s not just about how he plays, it’s about how he makes others play. Hendricks, they say, is vocal in the locker room. He pushes his teammates to do better and, in turn, they do. He’s always out there, at practice or in a game, whether he just got hit in the face with a puck or not.

“He’s a total package player,” his friend and fellow fourth-liner Jay Beagle said. “You need those guys on your team, those role players.”

Of course, intangibles are hard to quantify — they are after all not tangible. But if Hendricks can make the people around him give more and play better, maybe that’s worth an extra hundred grand or two a year. How George McPhee feels about that, though, is unknown.

There is another thing that might help keep Hendy around: his wild symphony of exaggerated dekes and leg lifts when five minutes of overtime isn’t enough.

“He’s got that shootout move that not many guys can do,” Beagle said. “I’ve tried it, I can’t do it.”

Photo credit: Bruce Bennett

I appreciate the gesture, but I’d really rather not have my team’s $10-million superstar throwing his body in front of ballistic vulcanized rubber. – RMNB game 6 recap

Washington’s one surviving newspaper beat writer, Katie Carrera, dropped this bomb on Thursday afternoon:

Alex Ovechkin played the final two games of the Capitals’ first-round series against New York with a hairline fracture in his left foot, according to a league source with direct knowledge of the winger’s injury.

Ovechkin reportedly sustained the injury blocking shots during the first period of game six. We wrote about it at the time.

GIF by welshhockeyfan

In games six and seven, Ovechkin scored no points and recorded just six shots on goal.

Despite the injury, which will require only rest to heal, Alex Ovechkin played for his country at the World Championship in Helsinki. Despite scoring an goal and an assist in his only game with Team Russia, Ovechkin was eliminated from the tournament.

The injury reveals a sometimes-hidden truth. Shot-blocking, while considered a sign of commitment, is often dangerous or reckless move.  In order to stop a low-risk shot by Ryan McDonagh (whose lifetime shooting percentage is a lowly 5.2%), Ovechkin actually hurt his team by impairing the skating ability of its best player.

Not a good trade.

Ribs salutes the fans after his overtime goal in game five. (Photo credit: Patrick McDermott)

For perhaps the final time in DC, Mike Ribeiro is #swag. (Photo credit: Chris Gordon)

The Washington Capitals have been searching for a second-line center for years. Last summer, they finally got one. In a shortened season with the Caps, Mike Ribeiro was excellent — even when his team wasn’t. He anchored Washington’s power play, turning Alex Ovechkin – a guy the Caps have invested $123 million in — into a lethal threat.  He stabilized the top six. He led the league in points on the man advantage, a huge source of the team’s scoring. He will soon be a free agent. The captain wants him back, though, and so does the coach.

“The most important thing is to re-sign Ribs,” Ovechkin told Slava Malamud. “It will be tough without him.”

“You all saw how valuable he was to our team,” Adam Oates added. “Hopefully the parties will work it out because we love him.”

After Ovi heaped praise on Ribs for his work this season, I asked Ribeiro what he learned by playing with the Russian. Seeing clips of him on NHL Network, of course, is different from sending him a cross-ice pass on the power play. Until this season, Ovechkin never depended on teammates. Instead, he’d take the puck into the offensive zone and try to create the play by himself. As we saw the last two years, that stopped working. Oates got him to change that, but in March Ovechkin demanded Ribeiro give him the puck in the neutral zone. Though Ovechkin is superstar, Ribs said no. By the end of the season, Ovechkin was a Hart Trophy finalist.

“He’s still a young player who has a lot to learn about the game and how to play it,” Ribeiro told me of Ovi. “He’s a powerful player.”

“His English was better than when I saw him on TV,” he continued. “Sometimes I was like ‘What is he saying?’ I used to be like that. Guys used to laugh at me the way I speak.”

Losing Ribs would be a difficult loss for the franchise, but it may be a necessary one. The team only has about $5.6 million in cap room for next season. While they could probably get Ribeiro for that, they’d have to shake up the roster a little or consider not re-signing RFAs Karl Alzner and Marcus Johansson. Considering Ribeiro is 33 and wants a four- or five-year deal, that’s a tough sell. (Ribeiro, for what it’s worth, said he “can only get better.”)

“It’s important to be hard on the merits and soft on the people and do it right,” Caps GM George McPhee said, before adding that he doesn’t talk about specific negotiations.

Still, Ribeiro reiterated that he likes the area and is hesitant to move his family again. He also wants to win. Until two weeks ago, he had missed the postseason in five straight years. That may have been justification to get the heck out of DC in February, but now it’s a reason to stay.

“Once you make the playoffs, you want to go back,” he said. “You see the potential that we have here.”

“I don’t want to be selfish by signing too much and not being able to get other guys here or re-sign guys here,” Ribeiro added. “If I stay here I want to have a chance to win. … You cannot just re-sign me and have the same kind of team. You want to improve your team.”

Soon, the Caps and Ribeiro will have to make their choices. On July 5, the center is no longer the team’s property. From the coaches to the media, everyone at Kettler Capitals Iceplex Wednesday morning knew they may be seeing him for the final time. Then, Ribeiro emerged. He strode to the podium outside the Capitals locker room wearing a fedora, a diamond earning, and a large chain. A reporter asked him about his opulent look.

“I’m allowed to do what I want to do now,” he quipped.

We’ll see if that includes staying in Washington.

Ovechkin speaks to the media at Kettler on Tuesday. (Photo credit: Alex Brandon)

Alex Ovechkin played in 86 games between the NHL and KHL this year. Though the season was lockout-shortened, several Capitals stars were still bruised and battered. Nick Backstrom injured his neck in Russia, Brooks Laich injured his groin in Switzerland, and various others dropped off along the way. We know now Ovi was playing through some sort of injury as well.

“Of course, there were aches and pains,” he told Slava Malamud of Sport-Express in Russian after game seven Monday. “Won’t say anything about needles, but injuries are always there. There were enough hits and physical play.”

So when did this all happen? Well, Ovi didn’t play well during the latter half of Washington’s first round loss to the New York Rangers; no one on the Capitals did. Despite scoring a goal in game one and notching an assist in game two, Ovi was held off the scoresheet for the rest of the series. At times during games three and four in New York, he was invisible. He did pick up his play towards the end of the series, but by then, it was too late.

As Ian already argued, there’s reason to believe Ovi may have been hurt (or conceivably aggravated something) in game three. As Ovechkin carried the puck into the Rangers’ zone during the first period, Rangers defenseman Aaron Stralman caught Ovi awkwardly along the boards with a hip check. Ovechkin had trouble getting up and labored in his strides back to the bench.

The Great Eight, insists that this didn’t injure him.

“I was ready physically,” he said of the series, again to Slava. “It wasn’t [Stralman's hit], [the injury] actually didn’t even happen in game three.”

You have to wonder if whatever ailment Ovechkin was struggling through, changed the course of the Capitals/Rangers series after Washington took a commanding 2-0 lead after games one and two.

Anyway, this season is done now. The Capitals lost. The summer has begun. Ovi has thoughts on that too.

“The most important thing is to re-sign Ribs,” he told Malamud. “It will be tough without him. Whether Kuzya can come next season or not, I have no idea. I am not going to advise him or tell him to drop everything and run here. He has his own head on his shoulders. He isn’t a 17-year-old kid anymore.”

Thanks to Slava Malamud for sharing these quotes with us. Follow this man on Twitter.

Additional reporting by Ian Oland.

Alex Ovechkin was understandably disappointed when he met the media for the final time this season. The Caps had been eliminated from the playoffs just 15 hours earlier, the sixth career postseason defeat of Ovechkin’s career.

It wasn’t all sad though. As Chuck Gormley of CSN Washington began a question about the quality of this Caps team compared to ones in the past, an R&B song began blasting from the Kettler PA system — specifically “Ridin’ Solo” by Jason Derulo. In a surreal moment, the music kept thundering in the rink for almost a minute. Ovechkin, and most of the media, couldn’t hold a straight face. It was funny.

Jump below to listen to how the whole thing went down.

Photo credit: Sport-Express

While the Washington Capitals season ended painfully last night after a 5-0 game seven loss to the New York Rangers, Alex Ovechkin will continue playing hockey. The Capitals revealed before his final press conference of the season that Ovi has been invited to Finland to join his comrades on the Russian National team competing in the 2013 World Championships. He will be flying over this afternoon.

“This morning they just called me and asked if I’m healthy and ready to go,” Ovi told reporters at Kettler Capitals Iceplex. “I said ‘Yeah, I’m ready to go.’ I’m still wanting to play. I don’t want to take off, I don’t want to watch games. I want to play hockey.”

“I’m in good shape,” he added. “Mentally I think I’m ready.”

Ovechkin will join top prospect Evgeny Kuznetsov, who plans to begin his professional career with the Capitals at some point after the Olympics next season.

Kuznetsov, despite matching or surpassing his goal and point totals from last season, has drawn some criticism from the Russian media for his struggles. He even got a verbal smack down from Vladislav Tretiak, the greatest Russian goalie of all-time before the World Championships.

“We want Kuznetsov to take responsibility,” Tretiak told Andrey Kuznetsov of Sport-Express. “There’s a lot of talk about with him, but I haven’t seen Evgeny playing like a leader with the national team. Though at his age, it’s time to take over the leadership role.”

“It’s time to understand that gold medal of Buffalo WJC is history and that you need to show yourself right now,” Tretiak continued. “Amazing chances like a World Championship roster spot won’t last forever.”

Kuzya wasn’t given a roster spot initially. The team lost their first three games before falling meekly to France and Finland. Against Slovakia on Sunday, Kuznetsov was finally given his chance, playing on the third line with Artem Anisimov  of the Blue Jackets and Islanders prospect Kirill Petrov. On Tuesday after scoring two goals for the gold medal winning Russia in last year’s World Championships, Kuznetsov tallied his first goal of this season’s tournament, a blistering one timer from the top of the left circle.

Kuznetsov scores at the 1:50 mark.

While Ovechkin and Kuznetsov are friends, Ovechkin has criticized the 21-year-old hometown hero of Chelyabinsk for staying in Russia, saying “I think he’s outgrown the KHL level” and “he needs to move on.”

However, when asked Tuesday about what he thinks Kuznetsov might bring to the Caps in the future, Ovi was terse.

“To be honest with you I didn’t see his game, but I’m going to watch his game soon,” he told RMNB’s Chris Gordon.

They will now try to win gold together for the second time in two years. Russia will play the USA on Thursday in the quarterfinals.

Additional reporting by Fedor Fedin and Chris Gordon.

It was mid-March and Karl Alzner was on the Internet. Like most twentysomethings, he looked up silly videos on YouTube to kill time. He stumbled across one from early last year — it was of Peter Dill, a basketball player for Seton Hall. Dill scored a single basket in his two years playing for the school, but he did get very excited when his team scored. Alzner played the clip for Mathieu Perreault.

“The guy would just go crazy, pretend he had Thor’s Hammer and he’d be smashing the ground,” Alzner told me Saturday afternoon. “Perry, I could just see his eyes, like ‘this is awesome!’”

“We should do that after we win games,” Perreault responded.

A couple weeks later, Alex Ovechkin put the puck past Jhonas Enroth during a shootout in Buffalo, ensuring a 4-3 victory for Washington. Perry followed through on his agreement with Alzner, letting out a primal scream, pumping his fists, and shaking on the bench. CSN’s cameras zoomed in, GIFs were made, and a meme was born — all within about 20 minutes.

“I didn’t know if he was gonna do it or not — but he did,” Alzner said.

“I get excited when we win!” Perreault added. “It’s just fun.”

A few days after Perreault’s inaugural freakout, the Capitals won another game in the shootout, this time over the New York Islanders, and Matty P. reacted with a manic windmill thing. The Internet took note again. But according to Alzner, he was also going wild at the time, doing some air-archery, a nod to one of Dill’s moves at Seton Hall. No one saw, though, and Alzner gave up trying to match Perreault.

“He’s doing it good — and I haven’t been,” said Alzner.

In the final game of the regular season, Perreault brought back his original convulsing celebration after the Caps beat the Bruins in overtime. Then, when Mike Ribeiro tallied nine minutes and 24 seconds into OT on Friday, Perreault went insane for the forth time.

“He’s a funny dude, so it doesn’t surprise me one bit,” Joel Ward, Perreault’s linemate, said. “For us that’s just a normal episode for him. He’s quite the character.”

There have been parodies, t-shirts, and perpetual replays, but the player at the heart of it has been largely oblivious of the reception the celebrations have gotten. Perreault’s not on Twitter and apart from a few videos, he was unaware it’d now become synonymous with him.

“I didn’t think it was gonna be that big of deal,” Perry said. “I mean, if people like it then it’s good.”

Alzner, though, knew he had something interesting from the start.

“I’m not too surprised,” Alzner said with a wry smile when asked for his reaction to the reaction. “I’m pretty happy about it actually.”

For Perreault, the celebrations are an illustration of his progression this season. It’s silly and it’s funny, but the scene would have seemed foreign back in February. The Caps were awful. Perreault was skating on the fourth line, only getting a few minutes of ice time a night. He hated it. As Adam Oates promised, though, Perreault got his chance. Now Matty P skates on the Washington’s superb third line, part of a Capitals team that hopes to win a Cup.

When that team wins, he celebrates more than anyone.

Photo by one of my old BFF’s back in the day, Jessica Rice

File under things I didn’t expect to write about: during Taylor Swift‘s Red Tour 2013 show last night at Verizon Center (that did not create any Yanni-esque scheduling trouble trouble trouble), the 23-year-old pop singer gave the Washington Capitals a little shout out.

According to @Mic_Nas89, Swift said, “You ask yourself why is there so much red? Well one reason is because the Capitals are in the playoffs.”

And then she sang this.

And then Caps fans in the audience freaked out:

TAYLOR SWIFT JUST FUCKING TALKED ABOUT THE CAPITALS BEING IN THE PLAYOFFS ON STAGE IM DEAD THAT’S MY GIRL TALKING BOUT MY BOYS

— Emily Ward (@em_ward15) May 12, 2013

Taylor Swift acknowledging DC is RED this weekend for her tour and the Caps playoffs #shesthebest

— Carlie Andrews (@carlieandrews26) May 12, 2013

Taylor Swift talking about the Capitals in the playoffs! Killing it

— Scott Zolotorow (@szolotorow) May 12, 2013

@taylorswift13 just gave a shout out to the Capitals for being in the playoffs as she prepares to play the song Red. #hockeyfan#RocktheRed

— Ed Frankovic (@EdFrankovic) May 12, 2013

I’m still waiting for her to come clean that her song 22 is about former Cap Mike Knuble.

Next time, Taylor, throw on an Ovechkin jersey like Snoop Dogg did at my alma mater last year. You’ll make even more fans! Also, please marry me.

I love this tour. I love Washington DC crowds. I love that we get to play here tomorrow night too.

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) May 12, 2013

Photo credit: Greg Fiume

Tom Wilson is barely 19 years old. Most kids his age spend their Friday nights drinking at parties in their precious time off from contributing nothing at all to society. Yeah, you know who you are.

Wilson, though, is bettering our world — he’s a hockey player after all — and he made his NHL debut Friday night. Granted, he skated a team low 6:24, but he threw a few nice hits and pushed some Rangers around after the whistle — typical fourth line stuff. His play wasn’t particularly interesting. The game it came in, though, was. The Caps won game 5 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals in overtime to take a 3-2 series lead.

“It was unbelievable — chills,” Wilson told me of his debut, repeating a version of that line countless times while standing in the far corner of the Capitals locker room at Verizon Center. “It was everything I imagined; it was a dream come true.”

Wilson, as you know, didn’t conceive himself a member of the Washington’s playoff lineup until a couple days ago. He played in juniors this year, registering 58 points in 48 games with the Plymouth Whalers, before they were cut down in the third round of the postseason by Dale Hunter’s London Knights. Wilson then moved on to Hershey in the middle of their playoff run. He played two games for the Bears, scoring in one. Ian was there at the time and exclaimed, “I would not be surprised if he makes the Capitals out of training camp next season.” Four days later, he was playing for the Caps, after Hershey was eliminated and Martin Erat’s arm smashed into the ice.

“I thought he did great,” head coach Adam Oates said. “Had a few hits, which is what we ask, skated well, fit into the line. It was great to see his enthusiasm.”

The Wilson family was freaking on Friday thanks to two rites of spring — playoff hockey and senior prom. His little brother Jamie was back home in Toronto along with his mother. Wilson’s dad and his older brother Peter, though, grabbed a flight down to DC. They landed just as Wilson had to leave for Verizon Center.

“I saw them, gave them a quick hug, and jumped in the car with Oleksy to come here,” Wilson said after the game. “It was a pretty special day for me and my family.”

By Saturday morning, Peter and his father Kevin were back on a plane to Toronto.

“I hope they had a great time,” Wilson said.